


Ice and Fire's Fury

by TheQuiteExcellentBlog



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-05
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 16:36:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1273471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQuiteExcellentBlog/pseuds/TheQuiteExcellentBlog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the events after Elsa had revealed her powers, I new adventure begin for the pair. Elsa who is starting to get greater mastery over her powers and Anna who has begun to learn archery will be challenged by a threat to Arendelle that no one saw coming. (Seriously guys, I hope this story will really impress you, its going to get crazy)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Arrows and Icicles**

Anna lifted the bow and arrow up to her eye so she could train her sights down the length of the shaft. She drew back the bowstring until she could feel the wood give no further. Satisfied she was going to make her mark; she let it go.

  
In the blink of an eye the apple was skewers and burst into mushy chunks that cascaded down from the top of the post it was sat on. Elsa started clapping giddily at yet another well placed arrow by her sister. Anna bowed to her admiring public that consisted of her infatuated sister and Olaf; but unfortunately he was more interested in a passing butterfly. Elsa couldn’t contain herself; she was so elated from spending time with her sister and finding out she was so talented, and that they were finally getting to know each other more. Elsa ran up and hugged Anna, ignoring the fact the bow was still between then and being pressed into Anna’s face.

  
“Oh goodness, Anna, you’re a natural!” squealed Elsa “I bet you’re as good a shot as the old Scottish Queen Merida!”

  
“Who?” said Anna, trying to answer in spite of the fact her bow was mushed into her face.

  
“Oh, never mind” said Elsa, forgetting her sister wasn’t as wide read as she was “It’s hard to believe that you only started practicing a few months ago.

  
Elsa finally let go of Anna to step back and look at her sister. It had been a year since Elsa had revealed her powers to the world and so far things hadn’t been too bad. No kingdoms besides maybe Weaseltown viewed Elsa as a threat and the events had actually done wonders for the kingdom in terms of trade because everyone knew where Arendelle was; news that your kingdom has a Queen with ice powers is news that travels far and fast.

  
While she had been training for the three years after their parents death until her coronation on how to run the kingdom; she still was learning the ropes somewhat. She still had her advisers take a lot of the load of decision making but when she was younger she spoke to her farther about what it would be like when she finally ruled Arendelle and he told her to never be ashamed of asking for help. He told her she can’t burden herself with all the responsibilities lest she crack under the pressure. She knew he was saying this to make sure Elsa wasn’t liable to lose control of her powers due to the stress of her queenly duties but it did mean she could spend time with Anna without feeling guilty she was neglecting her kingdom.

  
The pair, and on the odd occasion Olaf, would meet early in the morning for Anna’s archery practice. Anna had taken it up because she felt she needed some way to fight if need be. Elsa had her magic, Kristoff had his strength; even their cousin Rapunzel had perfected a pan based form of martial art that Anna teasingly called Fry Chi. Elsa said she didn’t have to be afraid; upon returning home to the Southern Isles, Hans had been exiled so wouldn’t be a problem for the sisters but Anna explained that the reason she wanted to learn of some way to fight was because she felt so incapable compared to everyone else. Upon being told this, Elsa’s reaction was just to stare at her sister wide eyed; in awe of her sister’s modesty and how she had seemingly forgotten all the amazing feats she had done to get to the summit of the North Mountain and then back down again.

But regardless, Elsa had granted Anna her wish and found her an archery teacher and had had made for her a custom bow that was etched with snowflakes on the wood. Anna had gotten so good so quickly because she practices each morning and because she would meet with her teacher each week so she could learn new techniques to help her fire more accurately and while under pressure.

  
Anna stretched a bit, tired from not getting much sleep the previous night. She looked at her sister who was practically bouncing in spite of the early rise but that was because she was always excited to spend this time together. Anna smiled at her sister and wished nothing more than to climb back into bed with her and cuddle her until they drifted asleep but Elsa was insistent that they never wasted their time together and were always doing something. Anna pleaded for them to just sit around in each other’s arms but Elsa was clearly trying to make up for the lost years.

  
“Hey, Elsa” said Anna breaking her sister from her stupor of staring at her lovingly “Watch this!”

  
She readied another arrow and drew back the bow and aimed at Olaf who was running away now; content to catch the butterfly, apparently wishing to make friends with the insect. Elsa tried to step forward and stop her but Anna had already accounted for the movement of the target and had aimed ahead of Olaf and fired before Elsa could grab her arm. Elsa drew her hands to her mouth as she gasped at Anna’s surprise cruelty until she saw the arrow harmlessly bury itself in Olaf’s behind without the snowman even noticing. The pair started giggling as the saw the arrow bob up and down as the little snowman did the same with each step. Olaf noticed the girls’ laughter and turned to see what the commotion was and noticed the arrow sticking out of him and burst out laughing.

  
“Look at that, I’ve been impaled” laughed Olaf, even going as far as wagging the feathered end like it were a tail because the enchantment that gave him life was having effect on the arrow now as well.

  
The pair laughed at the snowman’s fooling about and his attempts to remove the arrow before giving up and chasing his butterfly again.

  
“While I wish you had used something other than Olaf, it is impressive you can hit moving targets also” said Elsa smiling.

  
“Thank you, I am quite amazing” said Anna with mock self-flattery because she knew it made Elsa role her eyes so adorably and as if on cue, she did.

  
“Well you are amazing” said Elsa “I would never have thought that you’d be so good at archery”

  
“Why? Because I’m clumsy?” said Anna disapprovingly of her sister’s comment.

  
“What? No, I meant… what I meant to say was that... you see…”

  
“Relax Elsa; I was only kidding” said Anna dropping the act “I know I’ve always been a bit clumsy but only because I don’t bother to concentrate. The world is far more wondrous if you just let yourself be lost in it rather than focus on silly details like where you put your feet or keeping your elbows away from priceless vases”

  
“That’s a nice way of thinking I suppose” said Elsa contently with a hint of frustration in her face as she remembered how Anna’s clumsiness had broken the gift the Southern Isles had given them as an apology for Hans’ behavior.

  
The pair stood awkwardly in front of each other for a few moments; this often happened because the two were so keen to impress the other that they couldn’t allow any dead air to exist between them in case the other thought they were boring or something but because they tried so hard, awkward silences were inevitable. Olaf ran past and Anna keen to break the silence reached down and quickly grabbed the arrow of Olaf’s behind. It still wagged like the tail of an excitable dog until the residual effects of the enchantment wore off.

  
“You should try learning to fight with a sword” said Elsa, taking note of her sister’s dexterity.

  
“Well if you can find us another Master of Arms, I would” said Anna, inspecting the arrow, debating if it was right use again or was it now a part of Olaf.

  
“What’s wrong with Hemmershock?” said Elsa, shocked that Anna had taken a dislike to the lovely man.

  
“He says I’m a menace after I broke his sons arms when we gave sword fighting a go once” said Anna annoyed, remembering the situation.

  
“How… how did you break Johan’s arm?” said Elsa flabbergasted.

  
“We were practicing parrying with blunt swords and I got a little over eager and swung at his arm after parrying one of his swings and that somehow broke his arm” said Anna, confused at the events she was recalling.

  
Elsa looked on confused also. She had been told by Hemmershock that Johan had broken his arm in a workshop accident. It was now clear that he hadn’t wanted to admit that his son’s arm had been broken by the slight and clumpy Princess Anna. Elsa pondered on this; she had been told by the staff of how they had always had suspicions that Anna had sorcery like Elsa that manifested itself as superior strength whenever she willed it. She had heard of times when Anna had genuinely struggled to pull herself on to a horse and then of others when she would regularly waltz with busts in the portrait room which were made of solid stone. Hoping she’d never annoy her sister enough to give her warrant to punch her; she put the thoughts to the back of her brain and addressed the issue at hand.

  
“Well if you like Anna, I can find you a new trainer to teach you sword fighting” smiled Elsa

  
“Oh you don’t need to, it’s really isn’t important”

  
“I would certainly think it is” Elsa sternly corrected “I’m not letting talent such as yours go to waste! And besides, the Queen wishes for her protector to be properly skilled”

“Protector?” Anna said puzzlingly.

  
“Yes, protector” beamed Elsa “I, Queen Elsa, shall say that from this day on, Princess Anna of Arendelle is my sworn protector”

  
Anna was a little confused; why did Elsa need a protector? She had the ability to freeze a man into a popsicle and shatter them into sparkling dust; why did she need the protection of a girl who was only a pretty decent shot and had selective strength as she called it. But then she realised as she looked at Elsa who was trying to maintain her beaming expression in spite of Anna’s confusion was that Elsa just wanted to be more a part of Anna’s life and for Anna to be more a part of hers. Perhaps the whole protector business was just more of an excuse to have Anna around without delegates asking her to leave so they could discuss things in private because Elsa could say no with the explanation that Anna can’t leave her side because she was her protector.

  
Realising how important her acceptance of the offer would be to Elsa, she immediately bowed graciously to her Queen before dropping to her knee with her head bowed low and taking Elsa’s hand in her own two.

  
“I, Princess Anna of Arendelle, graciously take this charge to be your protector and swear to defend you with my life and defend your kin thereafter” said Anna, mimicking her sister’s impromptu pledge “I will be your protector, your knight, your last line of defence” she then raised her head and kissed Elsa’s hand like a real knight would in accordance with Arendelle tradition.

  
“Then arise, Sir Anna of Arendelle” said Elsa slightly fumbling her words and blushing because of how much Anna was getting into the part of a knight.

  
Anna stood up and bowed courteously to Elsa one last time before dropping the act and embracing her sister in a tight hug; so in love with her because she was so keen to spend time with her that she had just appointed her as her knight so she’d always be by her side. Olaf as if he had an innate sense for warm hugs ran over to the pair and hugged their legs, bringing a giggle from the pair. They finished hugging but still not keen to let go simply stared at each other lovingly while holing each other’s arms.

  
“I’m sure you’ll be a great knight, Anna” smiled Elsa

  
“Wait, does this mean I have to train really hard and go away to some knight’s camp?” said Anna worried.

  
“What? No! I appointed you my protector so we could be together more” frowned Elsa “I’m not giving you over to some self-assured knucklehead so you can be his squire and be taken away from me again”

  
“Oh thank goodness” said Anna with a sigh of relief.

  
“But I do want you to learn how to use a sword” said Elsa pointing her finger sternly “Such a skill is invaluable”

  
“Ok Elsa” said Anna kissing her sister on the forehead “I’ll do it for you”

  
“Thank you” said Elsa closing her eyes and bowing her head in thanks “Now, how about you and I have a little competition”

  
“What kind?” Anna asked ponderously.

  
“Whoever can hit the centre of the target the closest wins” smiled Elsa “We have three attempts each”

  
“But you’ve never fired a bow before” said Anna worried, well aware of the potential injury one could cause themselves if they used a bow untrained.

  
“I have no need for a bow” said Elsa dismissively before conjuring a small icicle that she floated above her hand “I have ice powers remember”

  
“Oh, fair enough then” said Anna hopping excitedly “but if you freeze and shatter my target board, you’re buying me a new one”

  
“What do you mean your target board? If I remember; it’s the Castle’s and anything of the Castle’s is mine” said Elsa with self-importance.

  
“Oh whatever, you stinker” teased Anna “Queen goes first I suppose” added Anna, stepping aside.

  
“Thank you” said Elsa with a little bow.

  
Elsa walked up in front of the target and shook out her arms to relieve the nervous tension that had built up in her limbs because she was on the spot. She raised her arm up and tried to use her parted fingers as means of training her sights on the target. She breathed in and out and tried to relax before summoning an icicle and firing it with a blast of ice wind, sending it sailing across the training field.

  
To say she missed the target would be an understatement; the icicle shot the target so wide that had it been Marshmallow, it wouldn’t have even grazed him. Elsa hid behind her fingers with embarrassment because of how badly she had missed. She hadn’t used her ice powers in combat at all since the events of a year ago and was clearly in need of practice.

  
“Wow” said Anna, squinting to see the tree on the far left that the icicle had shattered against “Perhaps you do need a protector. Unless your enemies have the good grace to stand several feet to the side of where they were when you fired”

  
“Oh quiet, Anna” sulked Elsa, glumly realising she was in need of practice more than Anna.

  
Elsa watched on as Anna stood in position, effortlessly pull back the stiff bow like it were made of soft rubber in spite of the fact she had struggled to lift the target board into place an hour earlier; clearly demonstrating that selective strength of hers again. She watched as Anna took aim, check her footing then loose the arrow and having it land almost directly in the centre of the bulls-eye.

  
“I think I win” said Anna smugly.

  
“Oh quiet, you stinker” huffed Elsa, bringing a giggle from Anna.


	2. Preparation and Paranoia

**Two Years Later**

  
The snow was thick and heavy and swirling all around her as Anna willed her horse to push on through the deep snow that covered the mountain side. Anna couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her yet still trying to keep her eyes focused in all directions to watch out for attackers. Suddenly an ogre brandishing a club came bounding out of the snow storm with its sights set on Anna. Before it could get anywhere near her, Anna quickly lifted her bow and fired an arrow into its chest. The creature’s silhouette froze then seemed to crumble into nothing. Anna kept going, wondering what she would likely to encounter next.

  
She finally reached a part of the mountain side that was a little flatter giving her a bit more visibility as she wasn’t looking up through ever thickening cloud cover. She looked around and saw what looked like three armoured knights on horseback appear from nowhere and charge straight for her. She fired off three arrows, two of the finding their mark in the silt of the knight’s visor. Like the ogre, the two hit knights crumbled to nothing. The third was unscathed because the arrow bearing for him had been blown off course. He was nearly upon her but Anna had managed to raise her arrow enough to fire it into his horse’s neck causing it to falter and fall to the floor. As he sprawled to his feet, she readied another arrow and when he looked up, she fired it into his visor causing him to crumble to nothing.

  
Anna breathed a sigh of relief and willed her horse to keep going even though it was a little shaken by their close encounter. Her horse kept trudging, struggling against the even deeper snow on the plateau. But suddenly she and her horse froze with fright when they both heard a distant roar off to the side of them, muffled by the thick snow storm. Anna’s mind raced at what was hidden in the greyness. The roar sounded again, this time closer and seemingly around them. Anna looked up and saw a monstrous shadow starting to loom out of the snowfall.

  
“Oh Elsa, what are you sending after me now” said Anna to herself under her breath.

  
The beast charged out at her and swung at her. The beast missed but it was enough to scare her horse, causing it to bolt and run away. Left deep in the snow, Anna struggled to get up and get her eyes trained on the monster so she could track its movements. When she popped her head out from the snow, she saw the creature was gone. She cautiously climbed out of the deep snow but bumped her head on something. She looked up to find it was creature’s formidable set of teeth that it had held above her as it leered at her menacingly. It swung at her but Anna leapt out the way, burying herself in snow again.

  
The swing had caused a cloud of snow to be thrown up and the beast was confused and looking for where Anna had gone. From her hiding spot in the snow with her eyes peeking out, she finally got a look at the beast. She could make out it had a huge bulking torso with armour and it was at least twenty feet tall. Its arms were like clubs topped with spikes at both ends and its legs were like tree trunks. On its back were demonic looking wings and it had giant horns on its head to match. It looks very like Marshmallow, Anna thought, just more demon-like.

  
“Marshmallow?” Anna called out questioningly.

  
The creature faltered slightly, not sure what to do. It peered towards where it had heard Anna’s voice come from and hesitated, wondering if to keep up the act and charge for her again.

  
“Come on Marshmallow, enough horseplay, come and help your Aunty Anna out of the snow”

  
Like a faithful puppy, Marshmallow ran up and scooped Anna out of the snow and cradled her like a baby. Anna snuggled against Marshmallow’s new ice armour, enjoying the lovable beast’s affection. But their fun didn’t last for long because the silence of the snowstorm was broken by the disapproving voice of a familiar Snow Queen.

  
“No, no, no, no, no!” said Elsa as she emerged from the storm “Marshmallow; what did I tell you? You weren’t to break character!”

  
“Sorry, mother” said Marshmallow sheepishly looking down at the ground and shifting on his feet.

  
“Anna needs to know how to take down giant creatures and you need to play the part so Anna can practice!” said Elsa, sounding almost like she was pleading.

  
“But Elsa, I can’t shoot Marshmallow, he’s too much a cutie for that” said Anna rubbing the beast’s chest and causing him to smile stupidly.

  
“Oh, and shooting Olaf is fine then” scoffed Elsa, offended that Anna was picking favourites among her snow children.

  
“No, that was different, that was in the bum” Anna corrected “I’m guessing I’d have to shoot Marshmallow in the face?”

  
“Yes” Elsa sighed “That’s where I told him his week spot is”

  
“Well I couldn’t look into those big, soft eyes and bring myself to shoot them” said Anna leaning up to cradle Marshmallow’s face and stare lovingly into his eyes “it would be so heartless of me”

  
“God help us if Arendelle is ever attacked by a giant sloth” said Elsa remembering Anna’s obsession with the creatures.

  
“Don’t even joke about that!” cried Anna leaping out of Marshmallows arms and running to grab Elsa by the shoulders “You do realise that if that happened, I’d just be clinging to the thing’s fur and hugging it throughout the attack”

  
“Nice to know Arendelle is so high on your list of priorities” chided Elsa.

  
“Sloth wouldn’t be much of a problem” pondering Marshmallow “Too slow to do anything bad”

  
The girls burst out laughing and Marshmallow joined in, his laughter almost like thunder.

  
“He’s right” said Anna as she choked on laughter “You’d see him coming for miles for days! We’d have all the time in the world to prepare!”

  
“We could send you and Olaf to pacify it until it agreed to leave us alone” added Elsa to which Anna squeaked at the thought of hugging the huge, adorable cutie.

  
“Elsa, why do you do this?” asked Anna almost concerned.

  
“Do what?”

  
“Make up these elaborate training exercises for me to complete” sighed Anna “I think you’re becoming a little paranoid”

  
“I’m sorry, Anna” Elsa conceded “It’s just I can never be sure what’s on the horizon in terms of enemy threats and I want you to be prepared”

  
“For what, snow demons?” said Anna gesturing to Marshmallow’s altered form “I think we have as much likelihood of them attacking as we do giant sloths”

  
Elsa giggled at Anna’s point and began to reminisce on how the first training exercise of a year and half ago had been a few snow dummies that Anna had to stick with an arrow before Elsa made them disappear. Now Anna had to battle all manner of monsters and solider types to ensure that Elsa was confident that her sister could handle them. She’d proven herself time and time again but Elsa still couldn’t stop worrying. It’s what sisters do.

  
Elsa had started the training after Anna’s sword training had turned out to be a bust. It wasn’t Anna’s fault though; Elsa had tried valiantly to get her a trainer and many brave souls had stepped forward but none lasted more than a week before they inevitably received a broken bone like Hemmershock’s son. The problem now was no one was left who was healthy or willing. Elsa pleaded for them to continue but most was scared that further injury from the Princess with a swing like Thor could end their career.

  
“This girl doesn’t need training!” said Elis Arnsen, the last of Anna’s trainers as he was taken away on a stretcher with a shattered shoulder “Give her an edged weapon and she’ll have a man in two!”

  
With sword training being out of the question, Elsa endeavoured to make Anna the best bowman she could be with these training exercises.

  
Elsa thought of how she was getting a little too paranoid. Yes she had all the reason to be cautious because if she existed, and creatures like trolls existed, what was stopping things like demons and dragons existing too? It still wasn’t healthy and her concern was worrying Anna.

  
“I’m worrying too much, aren’t I?” said Elsa sheepishly.

  
“Indeed you are, my Dear Sister” Anna smiled sweetly.

  
Elsa embraced Anna while Marshmallow stood their awkwardly. Anna noticed and beckoned for him to join them, expecting for him to kneel down and put his arms around them but instead he pick them both up and cradled Elsa, causing Anna to fall forward onto Elsa, burying her face in Elsa’s chest, much to the scandalised shock of Elsa.

Marshmallow gently rocked the pair as Anna seemed to make no effort to remove herself from Elsa’s bust as Elsa just went redder with embarrassment.

  
He finally let the two go and put them back down in the snow and started to walk off toward his castle on the North Mountain and saying good bye. Elsa was still mortified by Anna’s behaviour in front of one of their snow children but Anna just tried to leer at her seductively but failed and looked quite creepy and predatory. Keen to break the awkwardness, Elsa called after Marshmallow saying she needed to change him back. He paused and looked about himself to see his wings and horns. He didn’t mind them but he knew it would be easier to avoid being attacked by a passing mountaineer if they saw him in his more rounded form. Elsa whipped her hand about and removed the additions she had cast onto him and he was on his way again, she thanking him for his services that day.

  
“I must ask; why did you need to use Marshmallow? Why not just make a new snow beast” pondered Anna.

  
“Well it’s because I can’t make a creature that moves intelligently without giving it life. The snow creatures you fight are no more than snow sculptures I move with my magic but for something like the snow demon, I needed something that could think for itself. But I can’t go make new snow creatures each time so I thought I’d use Marshmallow. Besides, Marshmallow is a sweetie and would hurt no one, hence his poor acting; an actual snow demon could cause some trouble”

  
Anna agreed; while Marshmallow had thrown her off her mountain, he was terribly apologetic about it afterwards and had explained it was only in defence of his mother. That had been one thing Elsa found some getting used to; the fact that Olaf and Marshmallow often called her their mother. She’d considered asking them to stop but after a while she realised it was kind of nice and there was no harm in it.

  
“So what now? I haven’t a horse thanks to you” said Anna sarcastically.

  
“What? Why is it my fault?” sputtered Elsa.

  
“You chose to have Marshmallow attack us; you know my horse is timid”

  
“I am sorry about that; I’ll have the soldiers look for him when we get back”

  
“Thank you” said Anna before smirking playfully “I have an idea for how we can get to the bottom quickly”

  
“Oh, what’s that?” said Elsa.

  
“Ice sled!” she burst out.

  
“No, that is stupidly dangerous” said Elsa flatly.

  
“Please!” Anna begged, dropping to her knees.

  
“No, Anna! Have you seen how many rocks and tree are on the trail down?”

  
“Fine… stinker” saying the last part under her breath.

  
“What did you just say?” Elsa said teasingly.

  
“Nothing” Anna said nervously “I guess we’re walking then”

  
The pair started walking down to the Palace. While on the North Mountain, they weren’t far up it. Being a master of all snow based magic, Elsa had managed to make a snowstorm normally only found at mountain summits happen quite near to the bottom. Within an hour, they were on the outskirt of town.

  
They proceeded to the palace linking arms, cheerfully waving hello to anyone they passed. There was one hooded figure they passed her didn’t rise to their greeting and Anna thought she recognised who it was but couldn’t quite see under the hood. While the days training hadn’t been as successful as she had hoped, Elsa knew Anna could handle anything.

  
Well, except maybe a giant sloth.


	3. Delegations and Duty

Anna and Elsa entered the palace and Anna was immediately set upon by servants who helped her out of her dirty overcoats and took away her bow and arrows and began to usher her off to get changed ready for the trade delegation that afternoon. Elsa didn’t need to change because she was wearing her ice dress and had repaired it as the pair walked down from the mountain.

  
She followed Anna as she was taken upstairs, only stopping to ask a passing servant something.

  
“Could you bring my Isen, please?” Elsa asked the young girl.

  
“Yes, Queen Elsa” said the girl timidly, wary of the task she had been charged with.

  
“Whose Isen?” Anna asked as a servant helped her out of her jumper.

  
“You’ll see” said Elsa mysteriously.

  
“Is he the delegate we’re meeting today?” questioned Anna.

  
“You’re not even close” said Elsa with a chuckle.

  
They were in the bath room where a hot bath waited for Anna to wash herself in. Elsa waited a moment for Anna to undress and get under the suds before coming in so she and her sister could talk.

  
“So you think I was good today?” asked Anna as she washed herself.

  
“I would say so, amazingly in fact” smiled Elsa “Well, except for that last part” giggled Elsa.

  
Anna just wrinkled her nose at Elsa’s teasing and continued bathing. There was a knock at the door and Elsa went to answer it. It was the servant Elsa had asked to go fetch Isen and Anna saw her hand Elsa something. Elsa walked with great care to hide what she was holding before reaching the centre of the room and turning to show Anna what she was carrying.

  
“This is Isen” she proudly proclaimed, gesturing to the small dragon of ice that had now hopped on her shoulder.

  
“Oh my goodness, he’s so beautiful!” gasped Anna “When did you make him?”

  
“He is a she actually” Elsa corrected “And I made her when I was planning out one of your training exercises”

  
“You were planning on having me fight a dragon?!” said Anna said sitting out the water in shock.

  
“I was, but decided to forget the idea” said Elsa, averting her eyes.

  
“Is that because you saw sense for once?” Anna chuckled, settling back under the foam.

  
“Yes, and because I didn’t think creating a full sized ice dragon would be very responsible” said Elsa “should it have ever gone feral, it’d be very hard to take down”

  
“That is true” pondered Anna.

  
Anna watched as Isen stretched her wings revealing the delicate sheets of ice that made up the sail of her wing. As she moved, Anna could see the tiny ice crystals that made up her hide shimmer as she moved. Isen’s head was so thin and pointed, like an elongated puffin bill and she ponderously looked about the room. Isen’s long, thin tail snaked down Elsa’s back and idly swished the tail fin on the end back and forth. Her tiny, delicate limbs kept her balance on Elsa’s shoulder without her needing to use its claws for grip. Like its mother, this dragon was flawless.

  
“Right, enough chit chat, you must be ready for this afternoon” said Elsa suddenly in a matronly tone “I need my protector ready and presentable, so get washed. I’m off to go read the agreement one last time before the meeting. Come on Isen”

  
Isen hopped off her shoulder and skittered to the door, waiting for Elsa to open it. The pair swept out the door; the dragon clearly trying to imitate the swish of her mother’s cloak with her wings. Anna settled down in the water to relax and hoped that this trade meeting wouldn’t be too long.

Once her bath was over and she was dressed, Anna proceeded downstairs to the dining room where the delegation was taking place over a late lunch. It wasn’t an intense delegation; just a general discussion over what the two kingdoms were still willing and able to trade and the prices they were prepared to pay. But this didn’t matter to Anna because it was still going to be boring.

  
She entered the dining room to find Elsa sat at the table reading over some documents. Anna started to go over to where she was usually sat to Elsa’s left but saw Isen was perched on a stand that was placed at the top over her place setting.

  
“Where am I sat” asked Anna.

  
“Here next to me as always” said Elsa without looking up from the document.

  
“But Isen is here” she said pointing to the dragon who couldn’t seem to keep still or quiet.

  
“Oh sorry, I should have said. I put Isen in front of you because she’s being irritable and I need someone to give her attention during the delegation, do you think you can do that?” said Elsa with a smile.

  
“I think I can, what do I need to do?” asked Anna worried.

  
“Just keep her attention and stroke her, she usually keeps quiet if you do that”

  
“Ok” said Anna excitedly.

  
Anna sat down at her place cautiously making sure to keep her eye on Isen who was continually looking around and flapping her wings. Once sat down she offered a hand out timidly to Isen who didn’t even bother to approach her with caution and begin to rub her head against the side of Anna’s fingers. Anna looked to her side to Elsa with a giddy smile because of how immediately friendly Isen was. Elsa looked up from her work and smiled contentedly back; she didn’t want to ruin the moment and tell Anna she’d purposely made Isen to be friendly towards her but she still found it sweet to see them bonding.

  
“Isen is the most beautiful thing you’ve made with your powers, Elsa” said Anna with a contented sigh.

  
“Thank you, Anna” smiled Elsa, now abandoning the work to watch Anna and Isen play.

  
There was small knock at the door and Elsa called for them to enter. The head butler entered and bowed to Elsa and Anna.

  
“Excuse me, Queen Elsa, the Delegate from Livershome is here” he said.

  
“Thank you, please send him in” replied Elsa bowing her head.

  
The delegate of Livershome entered and bowed to Elsa and Anna. The Head Butler showed him to his seat across from Elsa. He was poured a glass of wine and one was poured for Elsa and Anna as well. After a few sips he placed down his goblet and was about to speak when he saw what he had thought had been an ice sculpture suddenly twitch and swish its tale. Transfixed and trying to figure out if the wine had taken affect faster than he had expected, Elsa took note a quickly addressed the matter.

  
“Oh I see you’ve noticed Isen” she smiled, arresting his attention “Don’t worry, she’s quite harmless. I apologise for her being here it’s just she was being irritable before and proving too much of a handful for the staff to handle”

  
“Your Majesty, I have seen some beautiful creations thanks to your magic in the time of our trade partnership” the delegate began “the sculpture of yourself and your sister at last year’s ball being a particular marvel to behold. But this is absolutely stunning!”

  
The Delegates sudden increase in volume startled Isen and Anna also, causing the latter to flinch and the former to hide under her wing. Elsa simply smiled in thanks and was once again ever thankful that Livershome had picked someone who was simply fascinated by Elsa’s powers and not fearful of them.

  
Lunch was soon served in the form of a simple spiced carrot soup with seeded bread. Anna tried to give Isen some of her bread but was stopped by Elsa saying Isen would have no way of swallowing it because she had no stomach. Once lunch was finished, the three and Isen retired to the lounge to discuss the latest version of the trade agreement.  
“Now Lord Knutsen, I’ve been going over your proposed trade agreement and all seems to be in order but I just need to clear up a few things” began Elsa.  
“Oh dear, that’s a shame, I try so hard to avoid confusion in these things” sighed Lord Knutsen.

  
“No, no, it’s no fault on your part. More ignorance of my Kingdoms own tradable goods” said Elsa “It said in the agreement that you want to find a way to possible start sourcing ice sculptures from Arendelle. Now while I appreciate the fact you admire my work, I can’t be spending time making ice sculptures for you when I have a kingdom to run”

  
“Oh no, your Majesty, we’d never expect you to make them” he said with a gracious bow of his head “We were referring to the ice sculptures made by a one… Kristoff Trollson” said the Lord checking his papers.

  
“Kristoff makes ice sculptures?” said Anna from nowhere.

  
“Didn’t you know of this?” Elsa asked Anna confused.

  
“No, he’d never mentioned he did such things” said Anna, mirroring Elsa’s confusion “I thought he still just sold ice”

  
“We really should ask about his life more” said Elsa regretfully.

  
“Your Majesty?” said the Lord trying to get their attention.

  
“Oh, sorry, well I don’t know how we could transport them to you” Elsa pondered “I know your kingdom is close but I don’t think the ice could survive the trip. Believe me, I know ice”

  
“That is a shame, the man has a way with ice that could rival you own”

  
“I am intrigued I must say. I shall have to ask our Royal Ice Deliver to show me his work” Elsa smiled “Perhaps he could travel to your city to do a commission on site”

  
“That would be wonderful!” exclaimed the Lord “Was there anything else?”

  
“No, that was the only thing in the whole agreement” said Elsa “I trust there’s nothing further you’d like to discuss” said Elsa hoping to wrap things up for the day.

  
“Well unfortunately there is, your majesty” said the Lord with concern in his voice.

  
“Oh, what is the matter?” said Elsa curiously.

  
“Well I need a guarantee from you that trade routes will be safe from harm your majesty” said the Lord with a regretful expression.

  
“I can assure you that we don’t have problems with bandits in this kingdom” said Elsa sternly, almost offended “We make sure to deal with any potential issue immediately”

  
“I’m so sorry if I offended you, Your Majesty” said the Lord trying to control the damage he had caused “I only say this because when sailing here this morning we spotted a large unmarked vessel anchored a few miles up the coast”

  
“Oh, did it engage with you in anyway?” said Elsa now concerned.

  
“Thankfully not but we were still concerned about the safety of your waters and I felt it my duty to ask during this meeting”

  
“Well thank you, Lord Knutsen. Would you mind if you and your men gave a full description of what you saw to my Admiral before you leave so we can see to this matter?” said Elsa with growing seriousness.

  
“Of course, Your Majesty, we’ll do anything to help”

  
“Thank you” said Elsa.

  
Soon after, Lord Knutsen left. He was met at the dock by the Admiral and told him all he saw and gave as accurate a description as he could of the ship he had saw. Elsa and Anna had waited in the castle and retired to Elsa’s study together with Isen joining them.

  
“Well that wasn’t too bad” said Anna thankful she hadn’t been too bored “Elsa?”

  
Elsa wasn’t answering, she was just sat at her desk thinking and staring off into the distance. Isen who had been perched on the back of a chair flew over to Elsa and tried to nuzzle her with her head in an effort to snap the Queen out of her trance. It was no good; Elsa was worried about something and couldn’t be swayed so easily.

  
“Elsa!” Anna snapped, worried to see her sister like this.

  
Elsa looked up bewildered as if she had woken up from a sudden concussion. She looked between Anna and Isen and back again; glossed eyes heavy with concern resting on her sister.

  
“Anna… I’m really worried” she said with a cracked voice.

  
“Oh no, please don’t cry” said Anna running to hug her sister “I’m sure they’re just some no good scoundrels who will be chased off easily enough”

  
“I hope so” said Elsa breathing heavily to fight back her tears.

  
Arendelle had no political enemies expect for Weaseltown maybe but it always weighed on her mind the potential possibility of one of Kingdoms of the world tolerating Elsa and her powers no longer and seeking to destroy her and Anna. Since becoming Queen there hadn’t been any such incidences and Elsa had started to relax and think perhaps she didn’t need to be scared at all but hearing of this mysterious ship had shaken her.

  
She hugged Anna back and beckoned for her to sit on her lap so they could hug better. Anna complied and nuzzled her face against Elsa’s and gestured to Isen to join the hug.

She happily complied and leapt on Elsa’s shoulders and wrapped herself around Elsa’s neck like a shimmering silk scarf. Elsa relaxed and told herself not to worry and be strong for her kingdom and for Anna.

  
After all, she was the one with Ice Powers and while she never believed it; she was stronger than most.


	4. Adversaries and Admonitions

Later that evening, the two sisters were getting ready for bed. Since being appointed Elsa’s protector the two had been sharing a room together. Anna hadn’t asked Elsa, more convinced the palace staff to move Her Majesty’s bed and things into her more spacious room. Elsa had been initially shocked to find her room absent of everything when she went to bed but quickly accepted the idea when she realised how happy it made Anna that they now could talk for hours before going to sleep.

  
Getting ready for bed for Elsa was easy; all she needed to do was turn her ice dress into an ice night gown and remove the ice clasps in her hair to let it fall down. As for Anna, she was fine changing in front of Elsa but Elsa insisted she showed modesty and did it behind the screen. Then there was the issue of Anna’s hair that had to have all the clasps and pins holding the braid together removed by hand and that was a long and lengthy process. Elsa usually helped Anna do this before seeing to her own hair.

  
They were about to begin their nightly ritual when a knock came at the door.

  
“Come in” said Elsa questioningly.

  
The Head Butler burst in, clearly in a panic.

  
“Your Majesty, your assistance is required! The town is under attack from mercenaries and they’re making demands!” he shouted.

  
“Oh no!” gasped Anna.

  
“They’re asking to speak with you, Your Majesty, by the harbour side” he continued.

  
“Very well then” said Elsa.

  
She got off the bed where she had been kneeling behind Anna and turned her night gown back into a dress and proceeded out the door without a word.

  
“Hey, wait up for me!” Anna cried after Elsa and running after her.

  
“No, Anna, you are to remain here” said Elsa sternly.

  
“What? No, I’m your protector remember?” argued Anna.

  
“Yes, but this is a simple dispute that needs to be solved diplomatically; I can’t have my protector join me because that would be seen as me expecting trouble” smiled Elsa.

  
Even though she tried to hide it, Anna could see Elsa’s real reason for her not accompanying her was because she didn’t want her to get hurt. She could see the worry in her eyes and how her fears that Arendelle was going to be invaded were all coming true. Anna sighed and sat back down.

  
“Ok, Elsa” she said quietly while looking at the floor.

  
“Thank you” Elsa smiled “Now Kai, I want you to come with me, brief me on everything that has happened”

  
“Yes, Queen Elsa” said the Head Butler before the pair rushed off.

  
Anna was left alone and she huffed in disappointment that after two years of training, Elsa still didn’t think she could handle herself. Well I’ll prove her wrong, she thought. She got up and making sure the coast was clear, quickly padded down the hallway and downstairs. She hid behind a curtain as Elsa passed with Kai and once she gone; broke cover and made a beeline for the armoury off the side of the courtyard.

  
The armoury was locked but she always kept her key for it around her neck to save it from getting into the wrong hands. She opened the door and slipped inside and thankfully found it empty of any guards or soldiers. She stripped out of her night gown and got into her tunic and trousers that she wore under her archery armour and then she strapped said armour over the top. She grabbed her bow and quiver and strapped it to her back. She was about to leave when she noticed a short sword on the side that didn’t appear to belong to anyone. She grabbed and belted it to her waist; she didn’t know how to use a sword but having one could come in handy.

  
Ready, she left the armoury and locked it up. She readied an arrow because she felt it was sensible to be prepared and began to slink across the courtyard before going down to the town.

  
“Hello, Anna”

  
The familiar voice made Anna freeze momentarily before jumping almost and turning to face it. She instinctively drew her bow and trained it on the person who had sent chills down her spine. They seemed un-wavered by the fact Anna was pointing an arrow at them and continued to walk forward. Anna pulled the string back a little further and took a firmer aim in hopes of looking more serious and it seemed to work because they hesitated.

  
“I see you’ve grown a lot since we last met” Hans chuckled.

  
“What are you doing here, Hans?” asked Anna angrily.

  
“Me? Just enjoying summer in Arendelle; what about you?”

  
“Just about to go down and join my sister while she sorts out those mercenaries in town” said Anna carefully “You wouldn’t have anything to do with them, would you?”  
“You could say that… I needed some way of getting you alone” said Hans smugly.

  
“Well I don’t know what you expect to do. You’re unarmed and you’re alone” said Anna, her confidence starting to grow “It would seem you hoped for me to be helpless and defenceless but I suppose you thought wrong”

  
“Unarmed? I think you find this” said Hans holding up a small, red stone “is all I need”

  
“What is that?” said Anna squinting slightly to get a better view.

  
“There’s a land not far from here, actually, that many years ago was where the town of Berk once sat” he began while pacing in front of Anna, never stepping out of her line of sight “Legend has it that learned how to ride dragons. This proved a useful bond for both man and dragon and after years of this partnership, man started to learn of the dragons’ secrets; of their magic. They started to learn of how man and dragon could become one!”

  
“Interesting story, now what has it to do with your pebble?” said Anna sternly, tired of Hans’s stalling tactics.

  
“Why don’t I just show you?” said Hans before popping it in his mouth.

  
The stone began to glow and Anna could track the stones progress down into Hans’ stomach as its light shone through his skin. Once there the light it produced bloomed and began to shine from all over his skin. Next Hans began to grow in size, his limbs extending and thickening, his torso getting larger and filling out, his finger becoming almost tendrils as the grew in length with huge flaps of skin between them; a huge tail grew from behind him and thrashed against the ground. Anna was so shocked that she lost her grip on the bow string and the arrow fired as she dropped the weapon to her side. The arrow stuck in Hans’ leg but it appeared to un-phase him during his transformation.

  
As soon as it had begun, it was over and before Anna now stood a dragon; a dragon with a vengeful spirit and evil intensions. His scales appeared to have the shine of fresh cast bronze. His head and jowls were etched with horns and spikes. His wings looked as if they were made of old hard leather and his claws were like scimitars. The sight was foreboding but Anna remained resolute in spite of her legs threatening to give. She simply stared Hans in the eyes; unsure where else would be safe to look.

  
“You see, after my exile, I wanted revenge. So I scoured the globe for a power that could match Elsa’s. And after meeting a shaman on the old site of Berk, I told him how I needed to defeat the Evil Snow Queen” he smirked at his own lies “The shaman happily gave the power to become a dragon, saying his ancestors would be proud of my noble cause. It was only a matter of mastering it and then coming here. I suspect you weren’t expecting that!” boomed Hans.

  
“I can’t say I was” said Anna shakily, making sure not to break eye contact.

  
Hans laughed and closed his eyes to enjoy his revelry; giving Anna her opportunity. She quickly readied an arrow and aimed for his eye. Unfortunately nerves had bested her and the arrow didn’t quite reach its mark and instead buried itself in his nostril. Hans roared in pain and breathed fire through his nose, incinerating the arrows shaft; the head of the arrow still appeared to be stuck in his nose and irritating the dragon. Hans sneezed and Anna heard the arrow head bounce off the wall behind her. Hans didn’t look like he’d found the funny side to Anna’s antics.

  
“You tried to shoot me in the eye!” he roared.

  
Instead of making a witty retort, Anna turned on her heels and ran for the edge of the courtyard. She made it to the side passage leading to the stables just before Hans landed nearby and let out a blast of fire. Anna wasn’t quite able to outrun it and caught a few licks of flame on her back that began to sting. She couldn’t worry about that now though, she had to escape.

  
She found her horse in the stable. He usually was so easily frightened but Anna needed him to be strong, to remain resolute. She grabbed the horses head and pressed her face to his.

  
“Listen, you have to be strong, ok? You have to be strong and not get scared! Can you do that for me?” Anna pleaded.

  
The creature seemed to understand until Hans landed outside the stables. The horse bolted and tried to run. Cursing under her breath, Anna tried to leap on as the horse charged away and out the castle grounds. She was barely hanging on until she managed to grab onto the reins and yank herself onto the saddle. Her horse thankfully hadn’t noticed her there and was too busy getting away from Hans to bother trying to buck her.

  
Anna held on for dear life as the creature continued to charge. She didn’t know what she was going to do next but she was glad to be going in a direction away from Hans. She only hoped her horse could continue to outrun Hans because she didn’t feel at all confident of her chances against him.

* * *

 

When Elsa arrived on the scene, the standoff between her soldiers and the mercenaries was at a stalemate; the soldiers were refusing to give into the mercenaries’ demands and the mercenaries seemed unwilling to go through with their threats of violence should their demands not be met. Elsa made sure to stay out of sight because she didn’t want to alert any of them and have them act irrationally.

  
From her hiding spot, Elsa focussed her magic and was able to encase them all in ice and freeze them in place and she also freeze their boats in place in case any were in them and would try to make an escape. All that was left was for her soldiers to round up the scoundrels and put them in gaol. She knew she had told Anna she was going to solve things diplomatically but she only said that so Anna would stay in the Palace where it was safe. It had felt amazing for Elsa to deal with the mercenaries herself because when the ice suddenly appeared around all the mercenaries, the gathered crowd cheered in triumph and began chanting her name.

  
Brimming with confidence, she walked up to the one who was the mercenaries’ captain to gloat. She approached his stocky form as he tried to stare her out and flare his nostrils in anger but she was feeling too cocksure to be faltered by this wee man.

  
“I hope you’ve learnt something from this, villain” clucked Elsa triumphantly “that no one can come to Arendelle and hurt my people for they have me, the Snow Queen, to protect them!”

  
The mercenary just laughed half-heartedly in response “Really, your Majesty, you think the was an actual attack?” Elsa’s faced turned to curious concern “If we were here to rob your riches, we’d just kill you all, not put you up for ransom. Corpses tend to hold onto jewellery not as tightly. What you experiences tonight was, shall we say… a distraction”

  
Elsa’s face contorted with fright; what did he mean, she thought in panic, distraction for what? Then, as if on cue, a terrible and thunderous roar echoed around them. It was hard to tell where it came from because of how the sound bounced off the buildings. There was then silence except for the odd whimper in the crowd and the mercenary captain smirking chuckle. Then the roar came again and Elsa was ready for it; she listened hard and heard it was coming from the Palace. Her heart dropped.

  
She ran to where she could see the Palace and was just in time to see a dragon fly from the courtyard and take to the skies, heading for the North Mountain. No one said a thing; all trying to process what they had just saw and determine if it were real or an illusion. Everyone then broke into screams and began to run around panicked and bumping into each other and Elsa who would remain unmoved.

  
Elsa felt hollow in her chest and had a million thoughts racing across her mind of what possible fate Anna could have met because of the beast that left the castle. It began to snow steadily and heavily thanks to Elsa and she was almost on the verge of tears and about ready to scream in agony when she heard charging hooves and looked up to see Anna on horseback charging across the bridge and towards the North Mountain. She was alive. Elsa was so relieved but now her heart raced because Anna still was in immediate danger and it still continued to snow.

  
Elsa acted fast; she turned her ice gown into a set of ice armour. She knew it wouldn’t do much good because steel was far stronger but it was the best she could do at short notice and she needed to appear intimidating. As she did this, the Commander of her Army ran up asking for orders.

  
“Queen Elsa, what do we do? You can’t go after that thing alone, you’ll be killed!” he pleaded.

  
“Do you really think me foolish enough to do this alone, Commander?” angrily retorted Elsa “I expect you to stay here and regroup, and then figure out an attack strategy to kill that beast! But that will take time and until then, my sister is in danger and I need to protect her! I’d ask for some of you to accompany me but I’m much faster with my magic. I know I am probably no match for the beast but I have to at least try to defend Anna, she’s the most important thing in the world to me” said Elsa with a single tear escaping her eye.

  
“Understood, My Queen” said the Commander resolutely before running off to give out orders.

  
Elsa breathed in to steady her nerves. She began to run for the mountain top leaving a trail of snow behind her. She prayed Anna was ok, that she was as resilient as Elsa knew she was but never managed to believe. Anna should have been with her when she went down to the docks; how could she be so foolish to not see it was clearly a distraction? No matter, she had to reach her sister before it was too late.

  
She just wished she hadn’t ignored Marshmallow’s warning.

* * *

Marshmallow stepped onto his balcony that overlooked Arendelle. It was a calm and peaceful night and the sounds of the kingdom never drifted as far as the castle so he was always, truly alone. He didn’t mind though, he liked to be alone but Elsa always felt regret for this; wishing he was more sociable. He knew he reminded her of what she felt was the worse aspect of her personality but Marshmallow told her not to regret his creation but enjoy his company. After all, he may detest visitors but he always welcomed Elsa and Anna.

  
He stood looking over the snow when a loud but distant roar caught his attention. He turned to see what it was and saw a dragon flying from the palace. He immediately bared his ice spikes in anger. He’d warned Elsa what her actions would do and look at how right he was. But petty blaming was not for now; he had to save his mother’s kingdom.

  
He carefully took off his tiara and placed it on the little table Elsa had made on the balcony last time they visited and then vaulted over the edge railing, tucking into a massive snowball and rolling down the hill towards Arendelle.

  
He just hoped that he did enough of a number on this dragon before he was turned into a puddle by its flames.


	5. Blindness and Belligerence

Anna’s horse had finally had enough of the dead weight on its back slowing it down and since it hadn’t seen the dragon for a bit, he decided it was time to get rid of it. He began to buck his back legs and jump forward and backward until Anna lost grip and was thrown into the air. She landed unceremoniously on her rear as her horse ran into the woods.

  
“Don’t leave me here!” Anna pleaded while she shakily stood up rubbing her behind.

  
“Anna?” said Kristoff popping his head out of the front door of his cabin that Anna had had the good fortune to land in front of.

  
“Kristoff! Pease, let me in!” said Anna as she sprinted for his front door.

  
“Er… now isn’t a really good time, please come back later!” he said frantically while trying to keep the door open only enough for his head.

  
“Please Kristoff!” said Anna as she struggled to pull the door open.

  
“Not the best time, Anna!” said Kristoff, pulling the other way.

  
Anna had enough and focussed all her strength to wrench the door open, pulling Kristoff along with it and throwing him into his own front yard. He never would figure out how she could be so strong.

  
“Kristoff, usually I’d have time for shenanigans but this is serious! Now get in here so I can tell you what is happen…” Anna stopped as she saw what he was trying to hide.  
The room was filled with ice sculptures of varying size. The Ice Deliver’s skill was unmistakable but what unsettled Anna was how… Anna-themed everything was. There was a small statue of Anna fighting Marshmallow and another that seemed to be the moment she punched Hans in the face frozen in time except in both Anna seemed to be much taller and muscular. There were others of her sat among the flowers or a bench reading, all of which had her in a dress without shoulders and low neck line.

  
But the one ice sculpture that Anna was transfixed by was one of herself that was her but completely naked and posed like Venus in “The Birth of Venus”, clam shell stand included except the Anna in this sculpture was a lot curvier and with far bigger breasts. As Anna tried to figure out if she was jealous of a chunk of ice, Kristoff spoke up.

  
“You’re probably wondering what all this is…” he began.

  
“I know… it’s your ice sculpture business” she said vacantly as she continued to stare at the ice sculpture.

  
“I know, but I need to explain these; you see…” but Kristoff hadn’t thought of his words further than that.

  
After the events of three years ago, Anna and Kristoff had started dating but soon they found themselves drifting more and more apart. A lot was too do with no common interest but Kristoff thinks it was just because Anna was not interested in him romantically because of how she’d always make excuses that she was spending time with her sister. Anna knew it was because she simply loved someone else more that Kristoff; she still loved the lovable Ice Man all the same though. When they broke up a year later, Anna thought he’d be ok. But the room of ice sculptures was saying otherwise.

  
“Listen, it doesn’t matter, we can discuss this later. Right now I need to warn you about…” but Anna was cut off by a thud outside the cabin.

  
“What was that?” as Kristoff went to the window to look only to fall back in shock and knock over a table that had a frozen scene of a load of tiny Annas ice skating and doing tricks with one another and having it smash on the ground.

  
Anna ran to help him up and found he was white as snow and his eyes were wide with fright. He tried to speak but his words failed him so he closed his eyes and appeared to be trying to wake up as if this was all a dream. Anna hadn’t the heart to tell him the truth. Eventually he opened his eyes after conceding he wasn’t asleep and the colour slowly started to return to his cheeks.

  
“It that a dragon” he whispered with panic in his voice as he tried to get up while trying to stay out of sight of the window.

  
Anna wasn’t quite sure how to answer that but she figured honesty was the best bet “Yes…”

  
“Why?!” Kristoff asked the question like the dragon was her new pet gone feral and he was asking why she had one.

  
“Because Hans can’t get revenge the old fashioned way with poisoned tea” said Anna with a half-hearted chuckle. Why am I making jokes, she thought, perhaps it’s a nervous tick.

  
“Hans is responsible for this?” said Kristoff, the blood starting to boil over.

  
“Yes, well he…” but it was all she said before she cut herself off upon hearing a familiar and welcoming voice challenge Hans.

  
“Dragon!” cried Elsa, causing Hans to whip around to face her “I am Queen Elsa of Arendelle and it is my sworn sovereign duty to protect my kingdom! If you think you are here to destroy our homes and devour our riches to take back to your lair then you are sorely mistaken!

  
“You could have targeted any kingdom but clearly you are a foolish beast because you targeted the one kingdom with a queen who has mastery over ice!” she continued to roar, sending up giant spikes of ice around herself to make her point as she said the last part.

  
“Hello again, Snow Queen, it’s so nice to be back in Arendelle” replied Hans amused.

  
Elsa was confused at the beast’s statement and that the beast could speak at all and her face unfortunately betrayed her. She saw the creature’s eyes and how humanly they showed its amusement in her theatrical attempts to intimidate it.

  
“Oh, don’t you recognise me?” said the dragon with a thundering chuckle “That’s understandable, I have changed quite considerably since our last meeting  
“I am Hans Dragonrite, formally Prince Hans of the Southern Isle until you and your sister ruined my plans! I originally wanted your kingdom for my rule but now I wish only to see you and your sister burn along with your retched people!

  
“You forced me to employ desperate means to ensure your destruction, Elsa. I had to be sure I had the power to destroy you! And as much as you show me this bravado; it still doesn’t convince me that you have any sort of power over me”

  
Elsa’s nerve was faulting. She was starting to doubt her powers and question if they were enough to defeat a dragon. She was in such a state of shock that she didn’t hear the rest of its rant after it claimed to be Hans. She began to feel tears escape the corners of her eyes as she thought that she’d never see Anna again and could do nothing to protect her because she was likely to be burnt alive in a few moments by this terrible beast that stood before her.

  
“Oh don’t cry, Queen Elsa, I’m not going to kill you now” said Hans with a sick smile seen across his eyes “That would be far too quick. Besides, I want to make Anna and your people watch as I turn you to ash. Show them not even you are resistant to my might!”

  
As Hans spoke Elsa heard the door open on the front of the shack that they were stood in front of. Hans didn’t seem to notice, probably because of his own booming voice thundering so close to his ears, Elsa thought. She didn’t dare look in case Hans followed her gaze and killed the poor person. She heard the distinctive sound of wood being bent and string being stretched taught.

  
“You’ve lost, Elsa! You’re last cards have been dealt and your doom is imminent! Do you have any las… ARGH! My eye!”

  
Anna had found the mark she’d tried to get before. The arrow was burrowed deep in his eyeball and blood was pouring down his cheek. Hans turned his head so he could train his other good eye on his attacker and saw it was Anna. He began to step forward but Elsa took her opportunity and taking her sister’s lead, fired a barrage of icicles at his other eye. Since that first morning two years ago when they had the target practice competition, Elsa had strived to improve her aim. It wasn’t as good as Anna’s but Elsa made up for it by firing many icicles simultaneously. One thankfully found its mark and was caused Hans’s other eye to freeze over, completely blinding him.

  
Hans began to thrash about wildly, staggering about uncontrollably; stumbling on his injured leg. Anna, Kristoff and Sven ran out of the shack as Hans stumbled toward it. They ran behind Elsa just as Hans finally bumped into the shack and furiously breathed fire around him setting the shack on fire. Kristoff let out a small whine about how he’d just paid off the shack but fell silent when Hans spun around and began randomly breathing fire behind him. Elsa luckily had thrown up an ice wall to protect them from the licking flames.

  
“You think this is over!” Hans finally roared after much unflattering stumbling “you think you’ve defeated me? I can still hear you! I can hear your breathing; I can hear your hearts hammer! You’re still going to die and die painfully!”

  
As Hans thrashed about trying to find them, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff and Sven quietly stole away into the tree line and away from the beast. As they ran, Elsa was crying continuously and stumbling over as she failed to see past the tears in her eyes. Anna noticed and grabbed Elsa around the shoulders to stop her from walking before embracing her tightly and letting Elsa sob heavily against her shoulder.

  
“Come on, don’t stop now; what if Hans finds us?!” Kristoff said as he tried to push the girls on.

  
“Would you please be quiet?” Anna asked sharply “Can’t she see Elsa is distraught! Its ok Elsa, we’re safe”

  
“We’re not, Anna!” but all Kristoff received was Anna’s sharp gaze that said; Not helping, Kristoff.

  
“I’m sorry” Elsa sobbed into Anna’s shoulder.

  
“But this isn’t you fault, Elsa”

  
“It is, Anna, I was a fool to ignore Marshmallow!”

  
“What do you mean?” said Anna, blinking in confusion and holding Elsa at arm’s length.

  
“Back when I first made Isen, I showed her to Olaf and Marshmallow at the ice castle; because you know, she was like their new sister” she said as she continued to sob “Olaf loved her but Marshmallow just sat there silently. I asked him later what was wrong and he said that having a dragon in my kingdom would attract a real dragon because he said something about the fact that dragons will tolerate almost anything in their territory except another dragon.

  
“I told him he worried too much and if there was a dragon in the mountains outside our kingdom, we’d know but he said that the reason dragons are rarely seen by man is because they’re intelligent beasts and know to stay away from us but they can’t ignore another dragon in their lands and even a dragon pup like Isen would enrage them. I still ignored him though thinking he was listening to the trolls too much but now I see what a fool I have been!

  
“I put my kingdom in danger; I don’t deserve to be Queen. On top of everything, the beast is toying with me claiming to be Hans! Can’t it just kill me and not make me think that vile snake has returned?!”

  
“Oh Elsa, you have it all wrong! That dragon is Hans; I saw him transform into it with the help of some enchanted stone”

  
Elsa just stared at Anna dumbfounded. She had heard the dragon’s claims but refused to believe them because it meant Hans was back for revenge but it seemed her greatest fears were true. As crazy as the notion was to her, she would have preferred it just to be a dragon. A dragon could perhaps be reasoned with but Hans clearly was only happy with destruction.

  
“Come on Elsa, we have to keep going. Hans may be blind but he’s probably going to set this whole forest on fire so we have to get out of here” Anna pleaded.

  
Elsa weakly nodded as they continued to run through the forest. They finally came to a clearing and Kristoff who had taken the lead checked all directions and satisfied it was clear, beckoned the sisters forward. As they began to run across the clearing, the heard what sounded like a ship’s sail catching a heavy wind. They all froze and waited until the saw Hans rocket over the tree line and crash to the ground; it would seem being blind and having an injured leg made landing quite difficult. Hans had nearly hit Sven and caused him to run off into the woods. Hans’ wing had nearly hit Anna causing her to run backward out of the way. Elsa, Anna and Kristoff were all separated and stood in a wide circle around Hans as he wheeled around sniffing the air.

  
“I can still smell you all, you fools!” Hans roared “I can smell that reindeer man a mile off, speaking of which…” Hans turned around and faced Kristoff directly.

  
He started to walk forward reared back ready to breathe fire when a rock bounced of his head. He turned to face where it came from and smelled the familiar scent that he still remembered from the ball three years ago; Anna. Perfect, he thought, the Ice Man can wait; I’ll make him watch me kill his love.

  
He began to walk over to Anna but Elsa was to have none of this; she conjured a huge ice ball and launched it at his head. It smashed on contact as he roared in pain. One of his teeth fell from his gums as he stumbled dazed. He tried to sniff out Elsa but her scent was too weak; did being a sorcerer of ice mean she never perspired, Hans thought. Before he could determine where she was, an arrow stuck in the soft skin of his jaw, sending more pain through his head. He whipped around and found Anna to have moved since a moment ago.

  
“You’re toying with me” Hans growled.

  
They weren’t actually; the girls were simply following each other’s lead; they had no idea how to kill a dragon, they were just making sure Hans couldn’t hurt anybody. Elsa was just hoping for her soldiers to show up soon so they could have a fighting chance.

  
“I am done with these games, I’m just going to kill…” but Hans was cut off by the unmistakable roar of another dragon.

  
Hans’s body language suggested he was confused; you couldn’t tell from his eyes because one was skewered and the other was frozen shut. Elsa however was stock stiff with fright. What colour she had in her pale skin drained immediately. Her fears that Marshmallow had been right returned anew; a small ice dragon might not be enough to attract a territorial dragon, but an actual dragon who was busy making lots of noise and destruction likes Hans was might be enough to attract one.

  
Anna and Kristoff looked to their Queen for advice for they feared the same as her after hearing the roar but all Elsa could do was fall to her knees. Hans clearly hadn’t mastery of his powers; yet he had almost killed Elsa and Anna; an actual dragon would surely destroy them all.


	6. Tricks and Triumph

Marshmallow was halfway down the mountain when he heard his older brother calling for him to stop. He stopped in his role and stood up and saw the small snowman toddle over and the ice dragon fly over and perch on his outstretched finger.

  
“What you doing, brother” Olaf chirped, seemingly unaware of current events.

  
“Defending Arendelle from that dragon” said Marshmallow like a knight charging into battle.

  
“Oh yeah, he looked really mean” mused Olaf.

  
“And you aren’t at all worried about that?” said Marshmallow in disbelief of his brother’s flippancy.

  
“Why would I be? We got you, Anna, Elsa; the kingdom is practically already saved!”

  
“Olaf, you and I are made of snow; and dragons breathe fire” said Marshmallow, still in disbelief of Olaf’s naivety.

  
“Yeah, but I got a sword!” said Olaf while he held it up and letting the moon light catch on the metal.

  
“That is a butter knife” said Marshmallow as Isen shielded her head in embarrassment with her wing.

  
“Oh what, really?” said Olaf disappointed before throwing it away “Oh well, it doesn’t matter, we got you”

  
“Don’t put all your hopes in me, Olaf” Marshmallow mournfully “I’ll try my best but I don’t know what I can do”

  
The sounds of crashing and roaring were heard by the three off to the side of them and Marshmallow immediately took off in its direction. Isen was knocked off her perch on Marshmallow’s finger but immediately took flight behind him, effortlessly keeping up. Olaf however struggled to keep up with his tiny legs; Isen noticed and swooped down and took the little snowman’s arms in her talons and struggled to lift him off the ground. She managed to get him as high as Marshmallow’s shoulder and dropped him on the larger snowman before resuming her effortless pace. Olaf clung on for dear life as he used Marshmallow’s back spikes as foot holds.

  
When the roared sounded again, Marshmallow willed himself to run faster. Isen had no issue keeping up but Olaf was desperately trying to stay on.

  
If Olaf hadn’t shouted out a warning, Marshmallow would have stepped on Sven and probably crushed him as he burst into the trees in a panic. Marshmallow approached the jumpy creature and cooed sympathetically until Sven calmed down and sat on his rear breathing heavily.

  
“What’s happened Sven, where’s Kristoff?” said Marshmallow seriously.

  
Sven let out a series of panicked grunts and bleats; Olaf and Isen looked at each other confused but Marshmallow appeared to be following the reindeer and understanding every word, or grunt shall we say. It was true; Marshmallow had taken it upon himself to learn all the animal languages of the species that lived on the mountain; telling wolves to stay off his land in wolvish worked ten times better than thrown rocks ever could.

  
Sven finally finished and was panting for breath, clearly having forgotten to breathe in his long explanation.

  
“What did he say?” asked Olaf.

  
“He says the dragon is Hans transformed by some kind of dark magic. He says Hans tried to attack Mother and Anna but they managed to blind him”

  
“Oh… go Mother and Anna!” Olaf cheered.

  
“Yes, indeed” Marshmallow continued with a momentary smile “But Sven says that Hans can still track them by smell. He says that Hans nearly crushed him when he tried to land and that Hans is facing off with Mother in the clearing just ahead”

  
“What do we do then?” Olaf asked as he tried to scramble higher up Marshmallow’s shoulder.

  
“I think I have an idea; Isen, can you please roar for me”

  
Isen looked confused from her perch on a nearby tree ranch. She shrugged and let out a small croak of a roar that wouldn’t prove formidable to anyone.

  
“Oh no, that will never do! Hmm, maybe if…” Marshmallow began to ponder before grabbing Isen and swallowing her whole.

  
Sven and Olaf gasped in horror seeing Marshmallow turn so barbaric in the face of adversity.

  
“Marshmallow, why? You can’t eat Isen just because she can’t roar!” shouted Olaf.

  
“Quiet, Olaf!” Marshmallow snapped “Try roaring again, Isen” he said before holding his mouth a gape.

  
Inside the large cavity in Marshmallow’s chest, Isen spin herself upright after being unceremoniously thrown in there and begrudgingly let out another roar. To her surprise, the sound echoed in the snow beast’s chest and came out his mouth as what sounded like a proper dragon’s roar.

  
“Perfect!” Marshmallow exclaimed with elated pride “I think this will work. Right, Olaf, Sven; come here please, I need to explain the plan”

  
“Do I get to help?” Olaf asked expectantly, hoping he wouldn’t be told no.

  
“Oh yes, brother, you do” said Marshmallow with a triumphant smile.

* * *

 

Only a few minutes had passed since they had heard the other dragon’s roar but it had felt like an eternity. Elsa, Anna and Kristoff hadn’t moved an inch from the spot they were in when they heard the roar but Hans continued to spin around on his feet trying to sniff out the other dragon. He suspected this was some kind of trickery on the part of Anna or Kristoff but he still wanted to remain cautious.

  
Elsa was gripping her head in panic, waiting for the inevitable. She heard a rustle in the treeline and so did everyone else and they all turned, even Hans even though he couldn’t see. Olaf and Sven came charging out from the treeline.

  
“Run, dragon, run! Run for you lives!” screamed Olaf as Sven grunted something, probably the same but in Reindeer Speak.

  
Elsa looked at the little snowman confused as he seemed to say this without taking notice of the dragon stood in the middle of the clearing. Olaf ran towards her before stopping in front of her and beckoning her to lean down. Elsa did so; still confused as to what was going on.

  
“Play along” Olaf whispered in her ear before running off and continuing to scream “Dragon, help! Run!”

  
Elsa looked over to Kristoff who had just had a wordless exchange with Sven and seemed to fully understand the situation. She also saw Olaf run up to Anna and tell her what to do. Elsa looked around; still unsure what they were playing along with and what was their cue.

  
“Do you expect me to believe this?” Hans laughed, “you’re little tricks don’t fool me!”

  
But as he finished saying that, another deafening roar came through the trees. Hans began to tread backwards, stumbling on his injure leg. While he was trying not to show it, Elsa could see he was starting to believe the supposed trick being played. She herself was convinced a dragon was attacking and was wondering what on earth Olaf was up to.

  
Out from the tree line leapt Marshmallow before landing with a heavy thump in the clearing and letting out another booming roar. Elsa was so confused for a moment until she heard Anna scream.

  
“Dragon!” Anna screamed before drawing her bow and firing it at Marshmallow, appearing to purposely miss.

  
Hans began to visibly become tense as he heard Anna’s scream and fire her arrows. Was their actually a dragon here, he thought, no, this was still a trick. He was about to say as much when he heard the roar again, loud enough to make his ears ring.

  
“Who dares enter my territory” boomed Marshmallow who was trying to morph his voice to hide his identity.

  
“Oh please don’t hurt us” Anna shouted in mock horror.

  
“My quarrel is not with you humans; my issue is with this dragon intruder!” Marshmallow continued as he tried to keep his nerve.

  
“Intruder?” said Hans in disbelief, starting to believe that an actual dragon stood before him “I apologise but I am not here to take your territory, I am here to simply kill the Queen”

  
“I have no care for that” said Marshmallow. Elsa could see that saying that he didn’t care about Elsa’s fate pained him “You are on my lands and I shall not stand it”

  
“If you allow me to just kill Queen Elsa, then I shall be on my way” Hans said as he tried to bargain.

  
“No, I have no quarrel with the Queen so can’t allow you bring her any harm” Marshmallow boomed, faltering slightly as he thought of what to say “Leave now or die”

  
“Well I’m not leaving!” screamed Hans, unsure how to respond considering his options were limited.

  
“Then death you have chosen!” roared Marshmallow before lunging forward and letting out another roar.

  
Hans reared up to take flight but was too slow and found what he thought were the dragon’s teeth bury themselves in his neck. He felt the long spears sink into his flesh; he felt cold as the life drained from him. Hans never thought death would feel this ice cold though. Instinctively Hans used the last bit of strength to push off Marshmallow whose claw like fingers were ripped from his neck and whipped his tail around sent the snow golem flying. He began to stagger off but the extreme blood loss from his neck and the fact one of his legs was too injured to work, he fell over straight onto Anna.

  
Kristoff fell to his knees in sorrow and Marshmallow screamed in horror as he saw Hans’s limp form fall. But it for some reason his body stopped falling a few feet off the ground. Olaf could see where Anna was under the beast and was looking on in amazement.

  
“She’s ok!” he exclaimed, causing Kristoff to look up.

  
Kristoff ran around to the front of Hans and saw Anna was alive but was being pinned by the hilt of her sword that stuck out from Hans’s chest. His body was being held up by several ice spikes sticking into his shoulders. Kristoff couldn’t speak; he was too in shock and trying to process if this was real.

  
“When is my saviour going to save me for once” said Elsa with a half chuckle as she walked around to the front of Hans “twice I’ve saved your life, when you paying me back?”

  
“The day you stop being amazing enough to be all of our saviours” Anna said with a strained smile because the sword’s hilt was restricting her breath.

  
Suddenly flames started to burn around where the sword was stuck in Hans’s chest before starting to spread across his body.

  
“Guys, help!” panicked Anna as she tried to dislodge herself.

  
Kristoff and Elsa reacted and each grabbed an arm and pulled her out from under Hans just before he was became a burning inferno. Marshmallow and Olaf began to step back as they felt the heat start to melt them. Anna, Elsa and Kristoff remained as they held onto each other as they rode out the shock. Soon Hans’s body was no more but a pile of ash in the middle of the clearing.

  
“By the way, where did the sword come from?” Kristoff asked once his mind was clear enough to let him find out all the facts.

  
“I held it up when I saw Hans was about to land on me” said Anna wide eyed “I figured that if I was going to die, I might as well try and kill him”

  
Kristoff looked on in shock before breaking into nervous laughter. Even in certain doom, she had to be the hero. Elsa joined in laughing and realised how lucky they were. They stood up shakily and took in the fact they had survived.

  
They all began walk from the clearing just as Elsa’s soldiers arrived. The Commander looked to Elsa who just smiled weakly.

  
“You’re unfortunately a little late boys; would seem that dragon was no match for us” Elsa shouted across to them with a smile.

  
The solider looked on with a look of shock and pride at the Queen. The soldiers awkwardly about-faced and formed a protective bubble around Elsa, Anna and Kristoff. The walked in silence towards the castle leaving the pile of Ash that was Hans alone to be taken off by the wind.


	7. Epilogue and Ending

Once back at the palace, they were all whisked off to have their injuries seen to. Anna was the worse injured because he back was begin to redden and sweat because of the burns she had received from Hans. Kristoff and Elsa had just cuts and bruises that just needed washing and bandaging. Anna was given privacy under her own request while the palace staff tried to find something to sooth the pain of her back now her adrenaline had worn off so Kristoff and Elsa went to sit in the garden because they couldn’t stand to hear Anna’s grunts of pain that echoed all over the palace.  
Morning was starting to break when the two went to sit on in the garden and they found Marshmallow sat on the lawn, appearing to be lost in thought. Concerned, Elsa walked up to him and put a hand on his arm and gave him her warmest smile she could muster.   
“Hello Mother” he said absently.   
“Is there something wrong, Marshmallow?” said Elsa who was taking notice of how Marshmallow has his arms crossed to hide his hands.   
“I’m just… troubled is all; I never killed anything before today” he sighed while uncrossing his arms to show the blood that still stained his fingers.  
“Oh” Elsa said morosely “I know it can be hard, but remember you did it in defence of not just me, not just Anna, but all of Arendelle”   
“But did you see the people? They went silent when they saw me and I heard people in the crowd gasping when they saw the blood on my hands. They think me a monster, Mother”   
Because Marshmallow hadn’t left the mountain since he was created it had been the first time many people of the kingdom had seen Marshmallow as he walked with Elsa and the others back the palace. Elsa had never told the people or Arendelle of Marshmallow’s existence because she didn’t think anyone would need to know. She foreseen having to explain this with yet another public announcement where she’d have to tell how, yet again, she hadn’t been entirely honest with her people and proceed to explain why. Elsa knew she couldn’t do that too often without completely devaluing it.   
“Yes, they do” Elsa sighed “Well they won’t anymore. When I announce what happened on the mountain, I’ll mention you and your brave service to Arendelle”   
“Would that be enough?” Marshmallow asked quizzically.   
“It will be the word of their Queen, they will have to listen” Elsa smiled.   
“Thank you, Mother” said Marshmallow as he gently placed one of his massive arms around Elsa.   
“You’re welcome” said Elsa as she hugged his arm “Now let’s get you cleaned up”   
Elsa cast her magic and removed the blood that stained his fingers, returning them to flawless ice once more. She also addressed the damage to his body where bits of his snowy form had been chipped or clawed when he and Hans had clashed. After fixing him up, Elsa stood and gave Marshmallow a little wave before moving to sit back with Kristoff.   
“Thank you for looking after my sister. Understand that we’ll replace your shack” Elsa said with a smile.   
“Thank you, Elsa… I mean, Your Majesty” Kristoff said quickly correcting himself.   
“Kristoff, please, you can call me Elsa, you’ve been too great an asset to my kingdom to need to address me so formally”   
“Sorry, I just thought that because I was no longer dating Anna, it wouldn’t be right” said Kristoff with a sheepish smile.   
Elsa felt a pang of guilt at what Kristoff had just said; while she loved how she had Anna to herself, she still felt bad that the Ice Man had no one for his own. Hopefully he had moved on and would meet someone new but Elsa knew herself that Anna was a hard one to forget. An awkward silence settled over the pair as neither could think of what to say. Luckily, Olaf stepped in to help by chasing Isen across the garden, much to her protest.   
“Olaf!” Elsa shouted sternly “Stop chasing your sister, she’d not a butterfly!” Olaf stopped and sulkily plodded off, kicking the grass while Marshmallow looked on with a silent chuckle.  
“Sister?” Kristoff said confused.   
“Yes, they all consider me their mother. I was at first against it but now I don’t see the harm” Elsa said with a smile “Gives them a family and sense of belonging”   
Kristoff merely smiled back and the pair sat in silence and enjoyed the ever brightening morning. Anna then hobbled out of the doors that led to the garden. She was wearing a silk nightgown so she wouldn’t have any weight on the burns on her back that were bandaged completely over making Anna look like a mummy around her neck line.   
“Could I speak to Kristoff, please? Alone.” Anna asked when she reached the table.   
“Erm, ok…” Elsa said confused, thinking that Anna would want to speak to Elsa first.   
Elsa stood up and beckoned her snow children to follow her. They went up to the top end of the garden and began having a snow ball fight; Olaf and Elsa vs. Marshmallow and Isen. Elsa conjured two snow banks, one for each team, making Marshmallow’s and Isen’s pile a lot bigger because Elsa had the advantage of being able to generate more snow. The fight began but it was more of a fight between Elsa and Marshmallow because Olaf’s throwing arm was weak and Isen had no way to through snowballs.   
Anna smiled as she watched Elsa frolic, so happy that Elsa was so much freer now. But she then signed and turned to Kristoff, regretful of what she had to bring up with him.   
“Kristoff… we need to talk about the ice sculptures”   
“Ok, listen, I’m so sorry, that was completely in appropriate, I won’t make any attempt to replace them when you get me a new shack and…”  
“Kristoff!” Anna said impatiently to stop his rambling “I’m not angry. I’m sad, Kristoff, sad that you couldn’t move on. I love you, Kristoff, but I loved someone else more and my heart was destined for them”   
“Yes, but who is this other? I haven’t seen you with anyone else since we broke up!” said Kristoff angrily “Excuse me if I find it hard to believe you Anna and think you’re just trying to spare my feelings”   
Anna sighed “Ok, I suppose you deserve the truth” Anna said with a heavy sigh “The other is Elsa”   
“Oh, well I suppose that could be true. You are sisters who spent so much time apart that you’re naturally going to want to spend as much time together and that…”   
“No, not exactly as sisters…” Anna said hesitantly “More like…”   
“Oh” said Kristoff fully understanding “Well then, that’s ok then” he said with genuinely warm smile.   
“You’re ok with this?” Anna said stunned.   
“Listen, I know it’s not normal; to love one’s sister like that but the trolls taught me that love is simply making someone else happy and if you and Elsa can do that for each other, I’m more than happy for you!”   
“Ok, wow, that went easier than expected” said Anna, hoping this wasn’t a dream that she was having after passing out from pain “But I want you to promise you’ll move on, find someone new”   
“Ok Anna” said Kristoff with a smile “I will. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t move on because I couldn’t be sure you were happy because I didn’t know who had replaced me but now I know its Elsa, I know you’ll be happy”   
“Thank you Kristoff, for not only understanding, but also being a true friend”   
Kristoff simply smiled and stood up offering Anna a friendly hug that she gladly accepted until the sting of her back proved too much and she had to let go.   
“Want to go join the snowball fight?” Kristoff said motioning towards it.   
“I can barely move, Kristoff!” Anna said impatiently.   
“Oh yeah… well do you mind if I go?” he said innocently.  
“Ok” she said with a chuckle “just said Isen over here to keep me company”   
“Won’t she mind?” Kristoff said as he ran out into the garden  
“I don’t think so” Anna called back as she pointed to a poor and frightened Isen who was just about dodging every snowball launched at her.   
“Oh yeah” Kristoff said in agreement “Ok, will do”   
When Kristoff joined the fight, things had become one sides in Elsa’s favour; Olaf had figured out he could stuff his mouth with snow and spit of snowballs at a rapid rate. Kristoff said he’d step in for Isen who gladly withdrew and flew over to where Anna sat and perched on her shoulder. The snowball fight resumed and Anna and Isen watched. Anna welcomed Isen’s presence on her shoulder because she could feel the cold radiating from her tail as it swished back and forth over her back, giving her some much needed, and cooling relief.   
Anna was glad everything was over. She tried focus on the snowball fight but the events of last night, her injuries and the fact she hadn’t slept proved too much and she fell asleep before she knew the outcome. 

 

A few weeks later  
Since Hans’s defeat, the kingdom of Arendelle was in a state of unrest. While the people had still been in shock for a while after Elsa had thawed Arendelle; that had been due to uncertainty over whether they could trust Elsa and her powers and coming to understand why she had done the things she had done. But the attack by Hans had shaken then far worse.   
Elsa’s winter had been great period of hardship but it had lasted such a short amount of time that the people of Arendelle really hadn’t had chance to suffer before things reverted to normal. But with Hans turning into a dragon, the people of Arendelle had felt under threat from a far more immediate danger. While he hadn’t attacked the town, just seeing him fly across the night sky was enough to scare everyone and make them doubt their safety. While Elsa and Anna had defeated Hans, people knew of Hans’s previous defeat so wondered if his lack of ability played into his demise and if the supposed champions of their kingdom could perhaps handle a real dragon.   
Elsa was currently holding a meeting with people from the kingdom who wanted a guarantee that the kingdom was still safe but it wasn’t going well. People were angry that such a thing had happened and were saying that after Hans was exiled that Arendelle should have hunted him down to keep an eye on him but Elsa pleaded with them to be rational and realise that they didn’t have the authority to do such things.   
As the meeting just descended into angry shouting, Anna excused herself and went outside into the garden. She walked around a bit and felt anger begin to boil away inside herself when she thought back on Hans and how he had ruined the perfect balance Elsa had achieved with her people. They had started to stop fearing her but now they feared something new, something that was hard to reassure against. She went to walk back just as she heard the meeting explode into loud shouting once again and Anna grimaced about going back. She felt sorry for Elsa who couldn’t leave because of duty but she didn’t want to be with people who were so angry and vile tempered. Anna hesitated for a moment before walking from the palace grounds to go take a walk to clear her head.   
She didn’t know where she was going; she found herself walking up the North Mountain and through the woods that were spread across most of its face. It was only midday so Anna wasn’t worried about getting lost; as long as it was still light, she would still be able to see the town and walk towards it should get lost.   
She continued to walk until she happened upon the clearing where they had defeated Hans. No one owned the land or perhaps no one wanted to admit they owned it; none the less, no one had cleared the pile of ash that had formally been Hans, most likely thinking it to be cursed or tainted. Anna looked upon it with anger; why did he have to have revenge? Why couldn’t he just move on and be happy he wasn’t executed for his crimes. Anna anger began to build and quickly boiled over and in her rage she began kicking the ash pile to just get rid of some frustration.   
She stopped after some flew into her face but when she looked back she saw a gleam of metal in the black and grey dust. She tentatively grabbed it and found it to be the handle of a sword; the same sword that she had stuck Hans through the heart with. Except this sword has strange etchings up the blade that looked like flames. Anna gave it a test swing and found the sword was perfectly weighted and would be great for fencing. She swung about, spinning it in her palm and rolling it over her wrist. Where did I learn to be so fancy with a sword, she thought.   
She was about to place it back down when she felt strangely compelled to keep a hold of the blade. But Anna knew Elsa would probably tell her to get rid of it. No, Anna thought, I must hide it from her. Anna looked shiftily back and forth before walking from the clearing, making sure to keep the sword behind her back. Once back at the palace, she found some old rags and wrapped the sword in it and hid it under her bed. She was just about to leave when Elsa came to her door.   
“There you are!” Elsa gasped before running over to hug Anna “You’ve been gone for three hours! Thanks for leaving me to the mercy of the towns people, my so called Protector”   
Elsa was being playful obviously but noticed as she held Anna at arm’s length how sternly Anna looked back at her.   
“Is everything ok?” Elsa said concerned.   
“I am fine, Elsa” snapped Anna, shrugging off Elsa’s grip “Just leave me alone”   
“…as you wish Anna” Elsa said worried as Anna stormed out.   
Elsa was very concerned; when she had hugged Anna just, Anna hadn’t hugged her back. Elsa could tease Anna to the point where she had lost her temper at her but Anna would always return a hug if offered one. Also, Elsa couldn’t put her finger on it, but Anna had felt different, colder than she usually was and a lot more angry. Elsa thought nothing of it though; they were all very stressed in light of recent events, Elsa just hoped Anna could shake these blues soon.   
Only problem was that it was more than mere blues that had arrested Anna’s mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the end folks! Well that’s the end of this story at least. I have a sequel planned so stay tuned for that! I also have a bonus frick frack chapter planned but I will be posting that as a separate story because I don’t want anyone who doesn’t want to read it to read it by accident.


End file.
